This is week four of DC's Future State event, and Booster Gold still hasn't appeared in any of the books.

But now Gold Beetle has.

That's cropped from the very last panel (Spoiler Alert!) of the backup story in Future State: Suicide Squad #1. The back-up feature is titled "Future State: Black Adam, Chapter One: The Beginning of the End," written by Jeremy Adams with art by Fernando Pasarin, Oclair Albert, Jeromy Cox, Wes Abbott.

The story takes place in the DC One Million era of the 853rd century, but that's about all we know about Gold Beetle so far. (I mentioned it's the last panel, right?) We can guess that If Gold Beetle appears in the 30th century in Flash #769 next month, she must be some kind of time traveler, right?

Maybe we'll find out more in Future State: Suicide Squad #2 on February 23. Meanwhile, make Skeets happy and buy this comic.

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If you didn't read BleedingCool.com over the weekend, you may have missed the notification that the original art for the cover of Formerly Known as the Justice League #6 (2004), featuring Booster Gold and Blue Beetle, is up for auction today at Heritage Auctions (HA.com).

Now, if you're the sort with an attention to detail and a good memory, you might have noticed a few small differences between this unpublished art and the final printed cover which has Booster much more front and center. As much as I love the original piece, I do think that the published cover sells the gag better.

As you can see at the top of the art itself, the piece was drawn by Kevin Maguire, who is responsible for drawing more Booster Gold comics than any artist other than Dan Jurgens, and Joe Rubenstien, who is credited with inking more Booster Gold comics than any artist other than Norm Rapmund. Jurgens and Rapmund, of course, worked on most issues of Booster Gold Volume 2, in case you didn't know.

By the way, this is hardly the only time that Maguire's art would fail to make a final cover on a Booster Gold project. This was the originally solicited art for the cover of Booster Gold Volume 2 #37 (2010) that never made it to press:

I'm rarely one to complain about Dan Jurgens and Jerry Ordway art, but in that instance, I do think the solicited art is more eye catching than what's actually on the cover. (Though, to be fair, I place most of that blame on the colorist's choice of unsavory yellow tints. Oh, well. To each his own.)

In any event, more Booster Gold art is always better than less, wouldn't you agree? (Thanks to J for making sure I saw this.)

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As webmaster of the Internet's premiere website dedicated solely to Booster Gold, I get several automated lists a week keeping me informed of Booster Gold references around the World Wide Web.

Some of these notifications are useful; others, less so. Automated bots and the rise of aggregator websites generally mean that I have a bunch of gibberish links to sort through each week. But they're not my least favorite return. That dishonor belongs to CBR.com listicles, especially when they're wrong.

Take, for example, "10 Superheroes With Siblings We All Forget About," which includes Booster Gold at number 6:

Seeing old news reports of her older brother being a big-time superhero in the 21st century, Michelle Carter decided to follow his path and become a hero herself. Calling herself Goldstar, Michelle's superhero career didn't last nearly as long as Booster's. After Booster's future suit was destroyed by Doomsday, he repurposed his sister's to build a new one.

That's wrong.

Goldstar's Jack Soo-created costume had nothing to do with Booster's post-Doomsday powersuits (most designed by tech wizard Ted Kord). Not only did Booster never show any hint of Goldstar's magnetism powers, that one-of-a-kind suit was seen destroyed during Michelle's fatal encounter with the Dimension X aliens in Booster Gold #22.

Another incorrect fact is reported in "10 DC Characters Who Have Never Actually Died," which lists Booster at 8:

He has faked his death before, but he's never actually died, which is a pretty big accomplishment for someone who has fought the kind of threats he has; whether it be against the enemies of the Justice League or saving the timestream, Booster Gold does one thing better than mostーsurvives.

That's also wrong, if only by technicalities.

An ill-fated confrontation on Mount Everest between Booster Gold and the villainous Devastator left our hero in such bad shape that the world's best surgeons couldn't save him. He was pronounced clinically dead in Justice League International #65.

Booster Gold cheated death in that situation thanks to the coincidental intervention of the Overmaster, who stopped everyone on the planet from dying until he was defeated, by which time Booster was safely strapped into new life-supporting armor designed by — guess who? — the Blue Beetle, Ted Kord.

But Beetle wasn't around to save Booster in 52 Week 15. Sure, there were some time-travel shenanigans in that story, but it's hard to argue that someone is "faking" death when you're looking at his actual corpse.

Which brings us to perhaps my least favorite of the recent listicles, "10 Unlikable DC Heroes You're Supposed To Root For," which once again puts Booster Gold at number 8.

He’s also done quite a bit to mess up the DC timeline. As annoying as he is with pulling pranks and constantly searching to get paid from big sponsorships, he has also selfishly made small adjustments that had drastic effects on the universe.

That's... reasonably accurate, assuming you ignore the fact that Booster has always admitted to and cleaned up after his own mistakes.

From the beginning, Booster Gold was *designed* to be unlikable. That's pretty much the original point of the character: Could a flawed person in a flawed society still be a force for good? Booster Gold is Dan Jurgens' answer.

What's really wrong with this listicle is buried all the way at the end of the article. While I might personally argue with the inclusion of several of the other heroes on this highly subjective list, number one on the countdown is none other than Superman, declared unlikable for "being near perfect in his morals and his abilities." How could anyone with the compassion and drive to help advance mankind ethically be "unlikable"? Boring, maybe. Sometimes preachy and often square, sure. But even Booster Gold *likes* Superman!

Booster Gold #6

Make up your mind, CBR. If you hate on Booster for being too flawed and Superman for being too perfect, all you're saying is that you don't really like comic book super heroes. Around here, nothing could be more wrong than that.

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